Monday, June 30, 2003

Overrated: ESPN's Jeff Merron ranks the ten most overrated athletes of all time. He makes a decent argument for many of them, but I kept finding myself wondering who ever rated them so highly. Phil Rizzuto? Deion Sanders? The quickly forgotten (or barely noticed by most non-Olympics devotees last year) Appolo Ohno? Nobody really thought that much of these people. As for skewering Lynn Swann, I think he's hurt by the era he played in as well as the type of team he was on. It's tough to accumulate stats when Franco Harris is grinding out yards on the ground and Bradshaw has a host of receiving options. It was what Swann did at the most important moments that mattered so much to Steeler fans and all football fans.